Athletes commonly wear ankle and foot braces to bind together the separate bones of the foot, ankle and lower leg in a neutral position so that traumatic experiences otherwise tending to separate the bones of the joints and damage the connecting ligaments will result in restrained movement hopefully not much beyond the normal limits of flexure, extension and twisting so as to avoid damage to the ligaments or other injury. Constraining relative movement of the bones at the joints, both the ankle joint and the talo-calcaneo joint which lies just below the true ankle joint, is also important during the healing of an injured ligament or an injury to the bone structure itself. The ankle joint is meant to move in only one direction, flexure and extension or flexing and extending the foot up and down. Side to side movement of the foot and normal twisting motion occurs in the talo-calcaneo joint.
In order to place the foot, ankle and lower leg in a condition of constraint when in a neutral position, athletes employ various tape configurations involving a technique known as a heel lock where the heel is significantly restrained from movement relative to the ankle and the remainder of the foot. An example of a particular technique is that known as a closed basketweave with heel locks. This involves applying an underwrap directly to the skin, then applying anchor straps at the mid-foot and at the lower leg. This is followed by alternately applying vertical stirrups of tape extending from the lateral to the medial sides of the leg and under the foot, and horizontal strips of tape extending from the front superior foot surface, around the back of the foot and then back to the front superior foot surface. Strips of tape are then applied starting at the top of the foot, under the bottom of the foot at a 45 degree angle, to a location behind the heel and then around the ankle, on both the lateral and medial sides. The foot constraint acheived is good but a large amount of tape is consumed as well as time in installing and removing such a tape wrap.